Americans' Retreat from Reason

The insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol struck not only at the heart of American government but at the notion that reason can guide public affairs.  That the rioters could believe – and be backed by millions more who also believe – that the 2020 election had been stolen despite dozens of court findings and overwhelming evidence to the contrary, even from the Attorney General, signals that conspiracy thinking and the passionate disregard of fact is a frightening force in American culture.

The United States is a product of the Enlightenment, the belief that reason can guide human affairs.  Enlightenment thinkers did not deny the power of emotions or the existence of evil, they just believed reason could restrain dangerous passions and a properly structured government could restrain demagogues and prevent tyranny. 

The founding generation, to be sure, was no model of rational benevolence.  African Americans were enslaved, women were denied basic rights, Native Americans were killed or forcibly removed from their lands and religious persecution was common.  Yet the bedrock principles of those early thinkers – that reasoned decisions could prevail over dangerous passions - would in time force the nation to come to grips with many of the departures from its founding ideals.  As the events of January 6th demonstrate, those principles will always be challenged.   

Thomas Paine, writing to the Abbe Raynal in 1782, said that “The mind, once enlightened, cannot again become dark.”  Yet it can.

·        Despite unprecedented access to knowledge, ignorance does not fade away. Instead of respecting facts and searching for truth, too many believe opinions and facts are the same thing.  They search for “evidence” to support pre-determined conclusions rather than challenging their thinking.  The astounding availability of information has produced not intellectual humility but stunted thinking: the refusal to expose oneself to contrary information, increasing polarization and unwarranted faith in biased sources. 

·        Our nation’s founders so respected science that they believed they could structure government as carefully as the Creator had established the movements of the planets. Yet too many Americans neither understand nor respect the power of the scientific way of thinking.   They distrust and discount scientific expertise, often just because someone tells them to, even though science has given them so much they prize in their lives - health, safety, and material well-being. Scientific mistakes can be corrected by better science.  Disdain for science just encourages dangerous and faulty thinking. 

·        American governmental institutions, based on the application of logic and science, have been a source of national strength and international admiration.  They are not immune from error, but the practice of consistently undermining them by many politicians and via social media has weakened them and accelerated the loss of trust in them and among Americans.  Attacks on our judicial system in the recent election demonstrate how tearing down respect for reason – the core of the rule of law -  fosters civil unrest.   

·        The Constitution is a logically constructed vehicle for managing angry disagreements peacefully. Yet too many now equate the civility and compromise embedded in the Constitution’s mechanisms as signs of weakness, of “selling out.” That has led some to take unconstitutional steps in the purported defense of “American liberty”– as if you can preserve America by attacking it.  We are a nation held together by a carefully reasoned document.  When we tear it up to suit passions of the moment, little is left to unite us.

·        Many Americans, driven by passions, ignore such basic Constitutional facts as that the framers did not want Congress to select the president, fearing that would make him subservient to it, fatally weakening the balance of power.  That is why Vice-President Pence could not just declare Trump the winner.  Nor do many understand that the Constitution prohibits the government from interfering with free speech but that private parties have no Constitutional obligation to protect it.

·        Too many Americans act as if personal responsibility is the opposite of freedom rather than an obligation arising from it. How else can we explain the argument that refusing to wear a mask to protect others against the spread of COVID is “my right and none of your business”? Such behavior is driven not by reason but by selfish passion.

·        Our earliest patriots cared about their honor.  We are now too often ruled by those who care more about being celebrated.  They demand to be honored even when they are dishonorable. Instead of applauding those who apply reason and dialogue – and tamp down passions - to solve national problems, too many reward those who disdain both. A president who willingly and consistently stoked anger, fear and divisions among Americans asks to be counted among the greatest to hold that office – and tens of millions agree.       

Thomas Jefferson said that “we may tolerate error so long as reason is free to combat it.” But what if we retreat from reason?  Passion has its place, as a source of energy and commitment, especially when serving as a complement to reasoned decisions.  But when passion pushes reason aside it harms far more than it helps. Until we correct the dramatic imbalance of reason and dangerous passions in our public lives, the American experiment will be in danger.  That is a tragic lesson of the past four years – and of January 6th.

Photo Credit: Jose M @unsplash.com